Witchfire’s Early Access Launch Delayed To Early 2023

Witchfire was one of 2017’s most exciting-looking shooters. The launch of the dark fantasy adventure romp had been scheduled for later in 2017, but developers The Astronauts have moved that launch forward to next year due to a change in design.

The Astronauts has decided to rework Witchfire’s arena-style combat into an open-world format. Creative director Adrian Chmielarz writes in a blog post that the change makes Witchfire a “better” game. 

“The feature is now 95% implemented. This makes the game more enjoyable. This freedom is so rare that I can’t imagine anyone else having it. Sure, you can still be trapped by the witch in this or that spot, and some doors will be closed until you find a key, and it might be too dangerous to enter areas closer to the boss before you are ready– but the world is wide open for you to explore in almost any order, and you can both push forward and retreat as you please.”

Chmielarz has teased more Witchfire news coming in the following week. It won’t be gameplay footage but rather content promoting the game’s art and world in some fashion. 

Witchfire combines gunplay and the supernatural, as players use magic and guns to fight off evil spirits. The game is set in an alternate reality where you’re tasked with hunting down a witch at the behest of the church. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter was previously created by the Astronauts, and this studio is comprised of former People Can Fly employees. 

Witchfire will still launch for PC on The Epic Game Store, in the early part of 2023. You can watch the most recent trailer from this year’s Summer Game Fest here.